


Hopefull

by Sonamae



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: College, F/M, Fluff, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 21:09:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3584061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sonamae/pseuds/Sonamae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short look about how Gwen feels in college.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hopefull

 College is exhausting in ways that make every inch of Gwen ache. She’s fought aliens and monsters and demi-God’s before and none of it prepared her for college. The hours are crap and she’s already had to drop four classes, but not because they were too hard. Honestly nothing is too hard, it’s just that doing it all at once is… it’s too much. There’s also the lingering ‘You’re Ben 10’s cousin right?’ thing that makes her want to roll her eyes into the back of her head.  
 Speaking of eyes, she’s never seen the bags under hers so dark. Has she been getting enough sleep? She can’t even remember. Kevin tries to help, he really does, but he’s not really suited for ‘legal’ jobs. Or maybe it was better to say that he’s not suited for Earth jobs. Gwen watches him work the garage and run a mostly-legal interstellar trading business like it’s nothing to bat an eye at. He mingles and he haggles and he’s so happy with his job that Gwen is often envious.  
 She never thought seeing him so happy would help her get through sleepless nights when she had a paper due at five in the morning, but it does. Kevin’s also that perfect boyfriend who puts up a ‘Be Back In Five’ sign just to bring her coffee and kiss her cheeks when he knows she has finals.  
 ‘You’re doing so well.’ ‘I’m so proud of you.’ ‘It’ll be okay if you take a break, you’ve got plenty of time and you’re the smartest woman I know.’  
 The little things he says have grown vastly in maturity and he keeps it up. Every few days he’ll find a way to do some cheesy act of romance that makes Gwen falls in love with him all over again. Although honestly it’s not that hard to love him when he’s traveled across the country just to be beside her. She never thought she’d be this happy in her entire life.  
 And then she’ll remember that college is physically exhausting her to the point Kevin has personally had to request she take one semester off. He’d told her that she was working too hard and that she needed a serious break, so she’d listened. I mean why not, right? Kevin was going to take off work too, so why not call it a vacation and have his friends run things for a little while.  
 ‘Someone has to take care of you, I mean you take care of me so why not return the favor.’  
 When he brings her breakfast in bed and attempts to read one of her essays aloud she can’t help but smile and giggle like a child. He makes her feel spoiled, but he also always makes her feel uplifted. Kevin loves her but lets her do her own thing when he knows she needs space, and sometimes she wonders what he sees in her. Sometimes she thinks Kevin is too good for her, but she knows he’d swear it was the other way around.  
 Kevin’s the one that says yes or no to missions if Ben calls because Gwen’s answer is always yes or ‘I’ll find the time’. He rations their road trips around her school work and he leans in against her when she sways from exhaustion. Doing the research isn’t just her job anymore, Kevin helps more than she could have ever asked for. The little things he does makes her want to cry with joy sometimes, and she wonders if it’ll always be like this.  
 What will they do after college? Will they officially move in together, or will they keep up the ‘let’s just keep half our belongings in each others apartments’ thing. When she looks over to the right side of her bed and sees it empty it hurts, but whenever Kevin is there it feels…  
 Honestly it feels like home. Having Kevin there, even if he’s asleep or busy making something and leaving grease stains on her sheets, that’s all she could have ever asked for. To think that she’d been so against spending a summer with her cousin, that if she’d fought just a little bit harder… she would have missed all of this.  
 Thinking like that makes her nauseous sometimes.  
 Would she have ever grown up if she’d have bailed on that trip? Would Ben have found the omnitrix and gone on that summer adventure alone? Would Kevin… would he have been okay?  
 Gwen closes her eyes and tries not to think too hard about that. She tries not to wonder what her boyfriend would be doing right now if they’d have never met.  
 After swallowing the worst of her fears she turns to Kevin sitting beside her and blurts out ‘I love you.’ He looks up from repairing some car part, motor oil smeared across his fingers and nose, and he beams.  
 “I… I love you too.” He chuckles when he says it, turning the wrench one more time.  
 “Yeah well you’ve got motor oil on your nose.” She tells him, then laughs as he reaches up to try and wipe it away. All it does is smear it more. “You’re hopeless.” She grabs the tissue box beside her bed and leans in to clean his face up.  
 “No, I’m hopeful. I’ll always have you to point this stuff out to me.” He grins and wiggles his nose beneath her hands.  
 She laughs again and grabs his chin. “Hold still.” He does this time, and she cleans him up with a warm smile that matches how gooey her chest feels. He will have her forever, as long as he wants her to stick around. And hopefully, she’ll have him.


End file.
